Heart of a Woman
by ItsLukasBondevik
Summary: She had to find him again, she had to know that whatever they did, whatever happened in there, hadn't completely destroyed him.


Ariadne walked out of the airport, still not sure why she was here. Arthur told her she was insane and stupid for going, Eames felt as though she did have a valid point but still didn't want her to go and Cobb... well Cobb wasn't exactly the happy with her, but didn't state that she shouldn't go, just to not tell him anything that he didn't absolutely need to know. Such as they performed an inception on him and what he believed to be true about his father and his godfather wasn't exactly the truth at all. Ariadne felt a little bad for leaving them behind, but she couldn't get the thought out of her head. It felt like an inception on her, though she knew that it didn't happen because they were all against her going to Australia in the first place.

She hoisted her duffel bag onto her shoulder and started off down the road, heading towards the where she was told the Fischer-Browning building was. Admittedly she was going in a little unprepared; her plan was mainly to ask to see Robert Fischer for a job opportunity. But it was a weak plan, and she knew it, but without any outside help from Saito or Cobb or Eames or anyone else, there was no way she was going to see Robert without a fight or a sneak tactic of some type. She just figured she could improvise when she came to that bridge.

The door to the building was glass, twice as tall as it really needed to be, with steel handles that gave it a cold feeling that made her shiver. She pulled the door open with more ease than she expected, and entered what was now looking like a deserted ghost town. Things were being taken out of the building, and she watched as most of the furniture was being loaded up through a side gate into a truck. She was a little confused, but continued on anyway, quickly skirting out of the way as what looked like a secretary ran out of the building with tears streaming down her face.

"Out with the old, in with the new," she heard a voice sigh behind her, and turned on heel to see the exact man she came to see standing there, his eyes glued to a file folder as thick as her wrist. She knew that he was probably acting on what they placed in his mind; dissolving his father's company for something that he could create himself. He seems fine, Ariadne noted to herself, watching him walk past her brusquely, completely enraptured in what he was doing. "Come on, we've only got another week or two until this building is bought up, so let's get this all out."

His eye grazed over her for just a moment, and she felt like she had just been through an x-ray or a cold shower. Or both. Her thoughts were not exactly coherent as he did a double take and fixated his gaze on her, making her feel slightly uncomfortable. "Do I know you from somewhere?" he asked, his voice suspicious and uncertain. Ariadne was still baffled at how easy she had found him and not able to form a response right away.

"Um, no," she said quickly, trying to banish any thoughts from her mind that weren't relevant to what she was trying to accomplish here. "My name is Amanda Stein, and I'm looking for a position in your, ah, company." Her voice trailed off at the end of her sentence as he continued to stare at her with those eyes, piercing blue setting her heart through so many loops it was making her crazy.

"Of course," he said offhandedly, pushing his dark hair out of his face as he looked through his file folder for something. For a moment she was stunned into utter silence, wondering what on earth was going on that gave her such an easy time today. Had she been a good enough citizen after the inception that she deserved all this amazing luck? He pulled out a form and handed it to her, his eyebrows furrowed in that expression again. "Are you sure we haven't met? You look familiar."

She laughed nervously. "Is that a pick up line, Mr. Fischer?"

It was his turn to look stunned, but he only lost composure for a moment before turning back into the business man. "It's not, actually," he replied, turning his attention away from her. Ariadne hurried to catch up with him as he moved into another room. She wasn't positive if he was okay yet. She had to make sure, she couldn't have the destruction of a man on her conscience.

"What made you decide to do all of this then, Mr. Fischer?" she asked quietly, trying not to refer to him strictly by his last name like she had during the job. Not very polite with her potential fake future employer. He glanced her way again, pausing in his footsteps, his head hovering over his papers.

He replied, sounding distant, "It occurred to me that maybe it was time I stopped living off my father's reputation and created one of my own." Ariadne nodded at what Robert perceived as his own logic, and felt that he was, in every way, fine. There was no mental break downs, no insane plans or plots or anything out of the ordinary outside of him taking apart the company. She breathed an internal sigh of relief, glad that she had no reason to worry about him at all. Despite all her worries that something had gone terribly awry, Robert Fischer was completely whole and sane.

"That is a very good aspiration," she said tucking the paper he handed her earlier into her bag.

"Are you sure we've never met before?" he questioned her again, and she couldn't help but wonder if he really could remember anything that happened down there. She had helped save his life from Limbo, but for him, he hadn't been the one to know about anything outside of the fact that he was in a dream. Some people, she knew, could have residual recollections of things they had dreamed, but usually it was only the most important part, the part that had the greatest impact on their mind while they were sleeping.

Ariadne nodded. "I would remember," she said with a smile, feeling slightly embarrassed. Fischer was a handsome man, there was no denying that. She wasn't quite used to getting so much attention from someone she felt was incredibly out of her league. "But thank you for the application," she said after a brief period of silence that fell between them. "And I'll get it back to you as soon as possible."

"Sounds good, Ariadne," he replied, sounding a little annoyed, turning back away from her. Her mouth dropped for a moment, because she knew that she hadn't told him her real name, that she had made sure to use a pseudonym. But her name had been said around him in his dream, he knew it subconsciously, like a Freudian slip. She made no move to correct him though; her name sounded so nice in his voice, coming from his mouth. She felt her cheeks burn at the very thought, and quickly began to leave the building, hoping that she could catch the next flight out of Australia and back to France where she belonged.

She glanced back and saw Robert Fischer looking after her, catching his eye. He tilted his head for a moment, still trying to figure out where he knew her from, and she knew that one day he might just figure it out. He waved her down, and she stopped where she was, frozen in place as he walked up to her. "Ariadne," he said, musing. "Like the girl in the maze with the ball of yarn." She nodded, not sure of what to say to him, though rather impressed with his knowledge of mythology. "Since you insist we don't know each other from anywhere before, let me take you to lunch. Think of it as a job interview."

"Oh, Mr. Fischer, that's all right," she said, wishing she had listened to them all when they said it would be a terrible idea to go to Australia. This was turning into a disaster. What if she showed him what exactly happened to him while they were in his dream? Brought up fragments of his dream, helped him remember.

"I insist," he replied, looping his arm around her shoulder and leading her out. Ariadne was dreading this almost as much as she dreaded seeing Mal. But she couldn't help but feel, with that incredibly girlish side of her with a crush, that she was kind of lucky. She stole a side glance at the side of his face, that handsome face that she had grown so accustomed to, that she knew she had to save from the terror of Limbo, and gave herself a small, satisfied smile.

Wouldn't the boys back home be furious when they heard what happened to her?

AN: I LOVE Ariadne and Fischer together. One of these days I'm going to write something where she tells him what happened, what she did. I'm oh so curious to see what would happen when he realizes everything he knows now is a lie!


End file.
